ugh im just so frustrated. it sucks that the only way to get a good metal tone is through a good tube amp.
Yeah, that's a really frustrating lesson to learn. There have been countless people come on these boards in your exact situation. They had bought an amp based on a company's marketing propaganda and were very disappointed with what they actually ended up with.
The solution to pretty much every one of these persons' problems has been the same thing: save up their money until they can afford an amp that's capable of generating the tone that they want. Amps are expensive. Nice amps are even more expensive. Amps that sound so good that they give you an erection are
really expensive.
The problem that you face is made even worse by the fact that every single dollar you spend on a stop-gap solution (a distortion pedal, fixing up that frankenstein tube radio you found, that horrid Line 6 amp you're eyeing, or anything like that) is a dollar that you are taking away from spending on an amplifier that will truly impress you. Those Line 6 amps have terrible resale value, so you'll never make you money back if you try to sell it.
It is frustrating, no doubt about it. But like DrewPeterson said above,
the Marshall MG isn't a totally terrible amp. Metal guitar tone is a strange beast that I can't even pretend to understand. It's a paradox: beginner or novice death metal guitarists want a whole lot of distortion, bone-crunching, balls-to-the-wall distortion. More distortion than you could shake a stick at, if it were logically possible to shake a stick at distortion. But they all seem to complain about their guitar tone with the same adjectives: "weak, thin, tinny, small, no balls, no guts, no low end".
The problem is that the more preamp gain you pile on your guitar tone, the weaker, thinner, tinnier, etc. it's going to sound. This is because at its heart, distortion is compression and compression is distortion. The first thing to know about compression is that it evens out the dynamics of the signal that's run through it. It makes the loud peaks softer, and the makeup gain makes the soft parts louder. So you end up with a pretty consistent signal strength.
Now this isn't a bad thing in and of itself. But you have to realize that with a guitar signal, making the loud parts softer and making the soft parts louder is going to rob the guitar of one of its most critical characteristics: dynamics, or "attack" or "punch" or "balls" or one of a myriad other terms that we guitarists like to throw around. What this "punch" is is the very initial hit of the note being struck being loud compared to the sustain of the note. Without this definition, the notes tend to sound indistinct and "muddy".
When you back off of the preamp gain, you'll end up with a more dynamic signal that will retain much more of the attack of each note being picked. In turn, that translates into a guitar track that is much more defined in your recording.
Another mistake that novice metal guitarists tend to make is to scoop out most or all of the mids on your amp. This is usually an attempt at emulating the tone of the metal guitarists that you listen to on CD. The downside to scooping out the mids is that the midrange frequencies of a guitar are where the instrument gets its definition, its clarity, its ability to be distinguished by the listener from the other instruments in your mix. The best and simplest advice I can give is to actually turn UP your mids a little higher than you would when performing or practicing alone. Some may argue against this *cough*Sonixx*cough*
, but most recording guitarists will agree that less distortion and more mids is a very simple first attempt at adjusting your guitar tone to be more recording-friendly.
Also, you hinted in your posts above that you're not entirely dissatisfied with your MG's tone, its just that you can't seem to capture the tone you're hearing in the room when you record your guitar. Now there have been tens of thousands of words written on this exact subject in these forums, but I'll give you my $.02 just because I'm in a talkative mood. Now anybody else out there reading this, please jump in with any of your own suggestions, tips, tricks, corrections, opinions, etc.
First things first, you've got to get your existing gear in tip-top shape. You have a solid-state amp, so that simplifies your amp maintenence situation. Make sure that your amp's power supply is clean, free from electrical interference from other appliances. Set your amp's controls for a tone that you like.
Next, make sure that your guitar is in tip-top shape. Get some new strings on it. Get the action and
especially the intonation set up as close to perfect as you can. Hell, spend the $30-$70 to take your guitar to a professional to have him set it up (action, intonation, truss rod, and any other standard tune-ups he offers). This is a very important part of getting a good recording. Poor intonation, poor tuning, or poor action that contributes to difficulty of cleanly fretting notes will destroy a good take when you're tracking.
Next, read up on acoustical treatment. Not soundproofing, because that's extremely expensive and best left for recording studios. But sound treatment. Controlling flutter, echo, standing waves and other acoustical bad news in your recording room. Spend an evening Googling about acoustical treatment for recording applications. You'll learn things that will aid your recordings for a lifetime.
Next, if you have a friend that can help, he/she will come in really handy at this point. What you're about to learn is that how your amp sounds to your ears in a room has very little in common with how your amp sounds to a microphone that's right up against the grille cloth in front of the speaker. Turn up your amp loud enough so that the speakers are REALLY moving. There'll be a point of signal strength where you'll start to hear your speakers bark, growl, or whatever other subjective adjective you want to throw in there.
Now, mic your amp with a dynamic mic. Put the mic somewhere near the center of one of your speaker's cones, about an inch away from the grille cloth. You mention you have a 4x12 cabinet. Mic the exterior portion of one of the speakers, not a portion of the speaker that's adjacent to another speaker (i.e. if you mic the upper right speaker, make sure that whatever mic position you end up with is somewhere in the upper right part of the speaker cone, away from the other speakers in the cabinet). This mic position is just for starters and will most likely not be your final position. Now, feed your microphone though your recording setup and route it through a set of over-the-ear headphones. You want headphones that will prevent as much sound from entering as possible. Turn up the volume on the headphones so that you hear your amp through the headphones and not from the room. Now have your friend SLOWLY move the dynamic mic around the speaker cone. The closer to the center of the cone, the less bass you will hear, but the guitar will sound brighter and more articulate. The closer to the edge of the cone, the more bass you will hear, but the guitar will sound muddier and less articulate. The closer to the grille cloth, the more direct signal you'll hear from the amp. The farther away from the grille cloth, the more room ambience and room reverb you will hear. Have your friend move the mic around in all 3 dimensions, focusing on only one speaker in the cabinet. At some point you'll hear a sweet spot. This spot will be the perfect balance (in your opinion, of course) that achieves the best balance between bass, mids, treble, clarity, woofiness, "balls", room ambience...you name it. But you may fatigue your ears (and your patience, and your friend's patience) before you find this spot. Try for a while, and if it doesn't come to you, put it down and come back later.
Once you've found your sweet spot, record some of your guitar tracks again. Now for one VERY important technique that almost ALL metal guitarists use when they want a thicker, heavier rhythm guitar tone. Record your guitar tracks again. And I mean record a whole new performance of the track on a new track. Try to get it as tight with your other track as you can. After you've got 2 tracks of each rhythm part, pan 1 track wide left and pan the other track wide right. You can pan them 100% each way, 50% each way, somewhere in-between, or maybe even less than 50% each way. But what you're doing is letting the subtle differences between each take create a texture, a depth, a thickness that translates to the listener as HEAVINESS. If you've never attempted this technique before, you'll really be amazed at how less distortion, a bit more mids, and wide-panned double-tracked guitars sound.
So what I've hopefully accomplished here is preventing you from spending your hard-earned money on an amp that's just going to give you the same frustrations that you're experiencing with your existing amp. About the only investment you should make right now if you don't already have a pair of over-the-ear headphones from the likes of AKG, Sennheiser, Audio Technica, is a good pair of headphones. That will run you less than $100, hell even less than $50 if you want.
Save your money for a good amp instead of spending it on band-aid fixes that won't net you the results you're after.
Good luck, and I hope that I've been able to help you and not just spout a bunch of stuff back at you that you already knew.
